This company's name could get lost in the shuffle of techno-inspired ones, but a site by any other name would not smell as sweet
As a teacher that would prefer to do anything and everything on computers with my students, I am always on the lookout for sites that act as a one-stop-shop for all my needs, and then some. I came across a site that should be getting more notoriety in the educational press, I think, and that site is Learning Objects (http://learningobjects.com).
Inspire Thinking Online is the tag line that is used to identify LO on the Internet and it certainly lives up to its word. According to the website, "Learning Objects develops creative, forward-looking software for education. Our solutions facilitate constructive interactions among students and instructors and enhance the value of an institution's existing IT investments."
Distance learning would not be possible if not for course management platforms for students and teachers to interact. Learning Objects builds on the technology that is already in place; like Blackboard and eChalk; rather than reinventing the wheel. An intuitive plan. Podcasts, wikis, and blogs are fully integrated into the platform providing seamless incorporation into course work. Judging by the number of universities that have signed up with iTunes-U, podcasting is the way to go. Learning Objects has figured this out and ran with it.
As a teacher that would prefer to do anything and everything on computers with my students, I am always on the lookout for sites that act as a one-stop-shop for all my needs, and then some. I came across a site that should be getting more notoriety in the educational press, I think, and that site is Learning Objects (http://learningobjects.com).Inspire Thinking Online is the tag line that is used to identify LO on the Internet and it certainly lives up to its word. According to the website, "Learning Objects develops creative, forward-looking software for education. Our solutions facilitate constructive interactions among students and instructors and enhance the value of an institution's existing IT investments."
Distance learning would not be possible if not for course management platforms for students and teachers to interact. Learning Objects builds on the technology that is already in place; like Blackboard and eChalk; rather than reinventing the wheel. An intuitive plan. Podcasts, wikis, and blogs are fully integrated into the platform providing seamless incorporation into course work. Judging by the number of universities that have signed up with iTunes-U, podcasting is the way to go. Learning Objects has figured this out and ran with it.
Included with yearly subscription purchase is Campus Pack, a suite of tools to make the most of online education. The following are the names and descriptions of the bundled programs from the LO site:
- Teams LX™: Build knowledge by building wikisTeams LX brings wikis into the learning environment. Users can easily work together to organize information into creative multi layered, multimedia websites. And Teams keeps a history of the work, facilitating review and assessment.
- Journal LX™: Experience the power of blogging With Journal LX, instructors can create blogs in which students can reflect on and analyze course-related topics and assignments. Students can review and comment on their peers' postings, and instructors can participate with students in the evolving dialog.
- Podcast LX™: Create podcasts with easePodcast LX integrates podcasting into an institution's online course environment without requiring additional infrastructure. It allows instructors to easily create RSS feeds and post episodes, and it allows students to subscribe to course feeds with one click.
- Expo LX™: Create and share personal spaces and portfolios Expo LX creates space for individuality within your learning system. Both students and instructors can author content in the form of blogs and websites, and share their sites with the campus community.
- Search LX™: Find the right content fastSearch LX is an essential tool for finding course content with speed and accuracy. The top-of-the-page search box and advanced searching options streamline content retrieval.
Social networking for the educational set, Learning Objects has revolutionized the way that students learn and teachers teach. I say revolutionize because Learning Objects is everything that Blackboard and eChalk are not. Where Blackboard is clunky and MS-DOS-esque (say that 5 times fast) Learning Objects is minimal and quite Web 2.0. It's like the Helmut Lang of educational websites. I love HL and I love LO!
An informative PDF about the suite of applications is available by clicking here.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing this information about Learning Objects, Tech Tank. When I have talked about learning objects in the past, I have referred to the more general term: [from Wikipedia] "A digital, self-contained, reusable entity with a clear learning aim that contains at least three internal changing and editable components: content, instructional activities (learning activities), and context elements. As a complement, the learning object should have an external component of information which helps its identification, storage, and recovery: the metadata." Thank you for introducing me to this specific tool.
~Katie~
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